Pandaren were, for me, a somewhat surprising and great success. Granted, I'm something of a fan of the idea of neutrality in any case although I'd like to take it to the point of having a neutral faction. Nonetheless it's nice to see Blizzard pushing outside the standard boundaries and I hope they continue to do so.

Pandarens as a race though looked great, had a whole continent full of lore to explore and get to know, and generally this has been one of the non-raiding highlights so far of the expansion.

---------- Post added 2013-04-25 at 07:09 PM ----------

Originally Posted by Vegas82

They worked from Blizzards point of view. Let me explain. Everyone I know who plays a panda chose that race to level. Once they hit 90 they race change. Now I know this isn't true across the board but with enough people doing this it's a huge increase in revenue from race changes which helps their bottom line every quarter.

If true, it's quite remarkable how many level 90 pandaren I see. Perhaps it's a server thing although I'm skeptical about that.

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As a preface, I love pretty much every single race on Pandaria...The Mantid are awesome, the Grummles are like the best race ever, but the Pandaren? I hate them. It's not even the whole "LOL PANDAS" thing either, it's just...ugh. They're so boring. They're all so pleasant and goodie goodie. I mean, has anyone seen a pandaren villain? Ever? Has there ever been a quest to lop the head off of Po-Xing-Zhao the Pandaren Raider? Because I haven't encountered one.

Seems kind of far fetched that in an entire race of people there hasn't been a single bad egg, and I know Sha, blah blah, control your emotions, blah blah blah: that doesn't cut it for me. The Hozen don't keep their emotions in check, nor do the Mantid, or the Yongol. It's only the Pandaren. It makes no sense.

Plus I hate their animations. The Pandaren Males are just too bouncy, and the females look so terrible I have yet to even play one, so I can't even speak about their animations. Seriously, they're the ugliest females in the game.

But at the end of day I'm just one dude. I guess...perhaps...maybe they were a success? There's really no way to know without taking some sort of huge survey to see if "we gotz the pandas!" was a huge selling point for MoP.

They weren't a success for me because of the horrible lack of customization for the faces. This issue affects mainly females, who all have the exact same eyes, nose, mouths...all the exact same expression. Whereas the males at least have some variety in the nose and mouth area, plus eyebrows that give different looks to the eyes.

The fact that our articulate complaints begging for more than one default face were dismissed will forever be a sore point for me. Just because that ONE face can make a lot of really great well-animated expressions doesn't excuse that each character on the creation screen looks the same. I lost a lot of respect for Blizz over their refusal to allow the pandaren female to look like anything other than a cutesy little girl. I wanted a scarred female warrior (men can have scars or look serious, why not women?) and since I can't have that, I simply cannot tolerate playing a pandaren.

I gotta admit, when there was first speculation of a Panda race I was one of those people that were all "AMG, if they put Pandas in this game I'm done with WoW!" And now I'm a Pandaren Monk main. I love them, the animations, racials, and sharing a love for alcoholic beverages. The cross faction thing was just icing on the cake.

On point. I think it was a success. Not to mention it was a nice bit of "reality" to the game i feel.

Not all Americans approved of our wars, and wanted our side to win. Thats not how life is, different people view the same things differently.
So seeing the same race, following 2 separate paths, and 2 different beliefs siding with 2 different groups, over the same matters, and realizing they most likely will have to kill their own some day.... it made the Pandaren the most "HUMAN" race in WoW in my opinion.

I like how they explained why the different sects of pandaren believe, though i dont think blizzard should have made it seem so specific to the sides they picked. Horde being the Jump In And Brave The Waters, the Alliance being the Measure Twice Cut Once approach.

But all in all, Major Success in my opinion, I would like to see more neutral races. More storys of other races, coping with a war they have no stake it, but will be pulled into, and how they have opinions of but arent the same as others of their homelands.

---------- Post added 2013-04-26 at 03:04 AM ----------

Originally Posted by Saerlaith

They weren't a success for me because of the horrible lack of customization for the faces. This issue affects mainly females, who all have the exact same eyes, nose, mouths...all the exact same expression. Whereas the males at least have some variety in the nose and mouth area, plus eyebrows that give different looks to the eyes.

The fact that our articulate complaints begging for more than one default face were dismissed will forever be a sore point for me. Just because that ONE face can make a lot of really great well-animated expressions doesn't excuse that each character on the creation screen looks the same. I lost a lot of respect for Blizz over their refusal to allow the pandaren female to look like anything other than a cutesy little girl. I wanted a scarred female warrior (men can have scars or look serious, why not women?) and since I can't have that, I simply cannot tolerate playing a pandaren.

I personally hated Pandaren from the first announcement. It was a bad idea, to me. This race that had existed hidden for centuries partially because they don't want to get involved in faction wars, partially because they just didn't want to leave their realm, didn't fit in for me. I got Northrend, I got Outlands, I got the reshaping from the Cataclysm. But Pandaria: Did. Not. Get.

There are better races with better lore that they could have used and it was a shame that they just created Pandaren lore. The perks were nice though. Like the cloud serpents and all the cool mounts. But they didn't need the Pandaren race to implement those.

Also felt the Asian characteristic of the whole place seemed a bit forced for me. Could have done it more subtly.

But that's just my two cents. Obviously they were a success for most other players, though I think many players had blinded judgement because of their history of commitment to wow.

"There is a savage beast in every man, and when you hand that man a sword or spear and send him forth to war, the beast stirs." - George R.R. Martin, A Storm of Swords

I think from a story perspective, it's very strange and implausible that they would join opposing factions of strangers they just met, and then fight against each other.

Agreed 100%. If I have any complaint with them, this is it.

Benevolence is a luxury for the strong - Wrathion
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I still prefer seeing Thrall rather than blood in my urine, that doesnt make him a good character. - Verdugo

I would say they are not utilized fully from a lore perspective, there is too little negative things about them to make them appear more 'humane'. For example, I play as an Undead Warlock. I love the lore of my race - slaves to the Lich King, then broke free and claimed the lands for their own. Our racial leader is badass, and I love the fact that we are the most scheming race of the Horde right next to Blood Elves.

In comparison the Pandaren are just super timid, Taran Zhu is not doing it for me. It's one gigantic 'meh'. Goblins felt way better, with their obsession with money and greed.

Overall yes and they are the only race where cross faction really makes sense to me. I hated my entrance to the horde and still do. Not cool with my monk just listening to what Garrosh is saying instead of pulling out his stick and smacking him upside his tiny head.

I think in a very general sense they were, but I'm not super thrilled to play them due to the identical faces. The cutesy :3 face just. No thank you. I like their place in the story though, and the models are lovely, besides the face thing.